Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

You're spot on red beard. There are cross supports under them but turns out not enough for the gravel filled beds.

Tank temp was 24 degrees yesterday, today max of 26.1 Another hot day tomorrow!!

Have put a tarp up over the entire tank & sump area with a good 1m of clearance for airflow, ideally my new air pump would be here already however in the mean time I've just hooked up a spare 3000L/hr pump to a fountain head.. Hopefully I'll get a little cooling from the evaporation and the fish will appreciate the extra o2.

Fingers crossed I can make it through tomorrow, then a relatively cool change for the next week. I think their days are numbered

I know that felling, we have had a maximum over 30 today, heading for 35 on Thursday, only thing saving the fish is the cooler nights.

ICE....if you can find the time get some into the tank during the hottest time of the day it will help, OBO will agree as I remember helping Mrs OBO add ice to his old system when it was getting hot in Kal and it did help

Coke / Cordial bottles full of water frozin in the freezer work well. Especially if you can get the fish into a smaller tank and limit the amount of heat introduced. Remeber that ammonia will not rise by much over a 12 hour period, so you can pretty much stop pumping water to growbeds, as long as you substitute water circulation with aeration.

ie, 150w water pump, replace with a 150w air pump (over a 12 hour period) works quite well.

Only applies for fish not being fed huge ammounts, which applies to Trout this time of year.

On the really really hot days, I used to not pump water to the growbeds at all, and just turn a normal sprinkler on to water the growbeds at midday This is only a temporary thing to get you through to a weekend harvest or something, not long term.

Thanks guys - Put in a few hundred litres of water last night that was at 21 degrees, plus had the fountain going. This morning water tempt 22.6 degrees.

Hoping with the shade and the fountain I'll be able to keep under my 26.1 degree max of yesterday.

I'm loathe to fiddle with the pumping, I'm on 24/7 atm because I'm awaiting a replacement airpump.. I think I will leave as is and hope for the best. Just one more hot day to get through.

I like the ice idea!

Well the good news is the water temp only reached 24.5 and all the fish are alive. The bad news is the 3m bit of pine I was using just propping the middle of the tarp up (to get more airflow) has tipped over and knocked my pump inlet off the side of the tank and my sump and gb's pumped dry Plants have suffered, hopefully they come good with the cooler change but I think some might be stuffed.

I'm spewing, the system has been so robust, I try to do the dodgy quick fix and thats when the problems start

Lesson learnt;
- Quick fixes can be dangerous

We have all seen pics of monster trout on here but these ap folk live in areas that dont have our super heated summers. Might be time to cull and move on eh

Yeah their days are numbered that's for sure... mid week cull just isnt practical for me so I'll reduce their numbers on the weekend.

Plants are already starting to prop back up, thankfully a cool change tomorrow.